Philip Rivers screwed up at the end of Monday night’s game in Kansas City. Big time. Inexcusable.

He started horribly. Almost beyond belief.

There is no way around the fact that Rivers’ mistakes cost the Chargers another game.

Monday is not the first time he’s put his team in a hole this season. His first-quarter passer rating is 64.7, 29th in the NFL. He’s missed more open receivers – with his eyes and his arm -- than any time in at least four years.

It’s difficult to argue against the idea that if not for his bungles, for all their other deficiencies, the Chargers would probably have two more victories.

Among Rivers’ league-leading 11 interceptions are six in the Chargers’ three losses. Of those six, one in each loss has come with the Chargers inside their opponents’ 30-yard line. Two of his three lost fumbles have come in losses.

The Chargers won the one game in which he was not intercepted and won the game in which he threw just one pass that was intercepted. They are 2-3 in the games in which he has been intercepted twice.

But in the ongoing effort to deduce the direction in which Rivers is moving, it must be pointed out that against the Chiefs -- in between his starting the game 2-for-8 for 25 yards with two interceptions and the botched snap with a minute left in regulation -- there were the greatest signs this season that Rivers is still the player the Chargers have counted on for so long and need him to be again.

The numbers are enough: He completed 24 of his final 33 passes for 344 yards.

Moreover, he was fantastic in the fourth quarter. He stayed alive, made plays, kept his cool and directed extended drives.

He was 4-for-6 for 79 yards in the Chargers’ 10-play, 80-yard drive to tie the game in the fourth quarter. That included an 18-yard completion in which Rivers escaped a seemingly certain Tamba Hali sack, rolled right, waited until the last possible instant and found a crossing Patrick Crayton downfield. Three plays later, on third-and-13, facing eight men in coverage, Rivers stepped up against pressure, again drifted right outside the number and waited for Vincent Jackson to come open for a 27-yard completion.

On the Chargers’ next possession, the one that seemed it was destined to bring them victory, he completed two of three passes before letting Curtis Brinkley and the offensive line get the Chargers into gimme field goal range. One of his two passes, a 19-yard completion to Crayton, required Rivers to pick up a blitz and step into pressure to fire a strike.

The fact remains that Rivers has failed on two consecutive chances to add to his career total of 13 fourth-quarter comeback victories. His career-low 80.7 passer rating this season cannot be spit shined.

Norv Turner was deliberate in his proclamations Monday that Rivers is pressing, trying to force things at times.

But Rivers also makes things happen.

“I think there’s some times he’s trying to do more than he needs to do,” Turner said. “And then there’s some times when he tries to do more than he needs to do, then he makes a great play (and) it gives us a chance to move down the field. There’s just a fine line.”

Because the good has been so overwhelming, the Chargers and their fans have happily lived with the bad with Rivers. This season is not the first time he's been excitable or forced some passes. Right now, the bad is coming more than the good.

One NFL personnel man who watched Monday’s game expressed the opinion that the good will come back into balance with Rivers.

“He looked like he was going to will them to victory,” the G.M. said of how Rivers executed the two fourth quarter drives. “He’s that kind of quarterback.”